I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on February 6, 2013 · 21 Comments

Yesterday I picked up some fruit trees at Wilco that were on sale for $14 each. Even if you don’t have a Wilco {they have stores in Washington and Oregon} now is the time to stop by your local nursery. Stores are beginning to get their new stock in for the year, and now is the best time to buy if you want to get the pick of the litter.

Costco also has combination fruit trees in stock right now for $15.99 each, and regular fruit trees for $11.49 {call your store first} to make sure they haven’t sold out}. I thought about buying my fruit trees online, but I really like the staff at my local Wilco. They are incredibly knowledgeable, and really take the time to help you select the right plant for your yard. That kind of help, is something you just can’t get from a big box store in my experience. So buy local if you can.

Another thing to be on the lookout for is rhubarb. Last summer I made some Rhubarb Cinnamon Jam is was so stinkin’ awesome, I decided to pick up a few more rhubarb crowns when I spotted them yesterday at Wilco too.

Now is also a great time to purchase blueberry bushes. Even though I already have 12 blueberry bushes, I think I might pick up a few more for the garden.

I don’t know about you, but I love this time of year. But it can be dangerous, all those plants? I wish I could have them all. Hmmm. Maybe I need to find more land.

Comments

We will be planting six new fruit trees this year. I was going to order them online but I think I’ll call Wilco first. I’m looking for dwarf trees. We have two very old apple trees that are ginormous (I’m not certain thats a word)! I’d like to avoid anything that grows so big you need a hydraulic lift to harvest:)

I’ve been getting stuff from Miller’s for years. They will have the dwarf trees you are looking for and they stand by their stock. You might want to check them out online but the catalog is great to have around the house.

Not this year. I got a Braeburn apple last year (Dale). No apples once the coddling moths got to it. This year I have started spraying.

I did get blueberries several months ago (one of my Craigslist bargains!) from someone who didn’t want the expense of repotting them in correct soil. I have them in larger pots now. My soil is not good enough to put them in the ground. They are Bluecrop. I will be getting another variety for pollination for a better crop.

I also have 9 boysenberry starts (again, Craigslist, this time free!) I will be putting into large containers too. Two with trellises against the house, the rest behind a lattice “fence” that separates the people part of my yard (deck and lawn) from the back back yard.

I get my better plants (by that I mean fruit trees, perennial shrubs, anything that will be living for years) at a nearby nursery (Shooting Star). Well, if I can’t get them “used” on Craigslist! I have quite a treasure trove of gardening supplies, etc. off there! Even two of my three dogs are CL finds. I got my June bearer strawberries from there originally. I might try everbearers, since I got an old wooden gate from my neighbor yesterday, and it has thick planks of wood that will be perfect for a raised bed!

I have a very small lot so I am planning on getting 3 or 4 dwarf trees. I would like a dwarf freestone peach, dwarf apricot, dwarf plum(hoping to find a green gage) and a dwarf pear tree. We have 3 asian pear trees and a persimmon tree at my moms house so I think we are good. If hubby will let me I would like to get rid of our old dying maple tree in the front yard and put in a couple of apple trees instead. We’ll see what he thinks about that. I am also planning on planting raspberries on the back side of our house and if I can I have about a foot and a half strip of dirt that is 30 feet long, I’m hoping to install some grape fine supports and plant some red and green seedless grapes there. We still have a ton of snow, so I’ll start looking at the end of the month for trees. I’m hoping my farmer friend can hook me up with some.

Here in the middle of the continent we are still only dreaming of spring plantings (I say as the snow continues to fall outside my window). However, the hubby and I put in a number of edible perennials last summer that I am extremely excited for! Highlights include 3 apple trees (Honeycrisp, Haralson, and Zestar). This summer’s additions include bog-less cranberries, a Zone 4- hardy peach tree and a couple pear trees!

Your location makes all these things so early, it just makes me so want to get out there! Yet we have about 36 inches of snow in the yard so not right now 😐 I am getting raspberries from my Grandmother–they grow like weeds here. Put in dwarf cherries, saskatoons and hasps last year. Blackberries, Tayberries, Blueberries, and some more cherries on the way. It remains to be seen if the Apricot will be coming this year… We have a crap apple and small apple in the yard already. I <3 fruit trees.

I have a HUGE sour cherry tree that I have yet to utilize to its full potential and two unknown fruit trees in the back yard. Think I might run over to the Wilco in Gig Harbor and pick up a couple dwarf apples.

Are you going to plant a ‘postage-size orchard’? I saw that in one of the gardening magazines and am going to try it this year at my place. They had it laid out–I need visual references–and used self-pollinating stock. Who knew you could have an orchard in a 10×12 ft space ???? Awesome!!

I just planted two Pomegranate Trees last night!
Two years ago I moved to NC, and each year I get a couple more fruit trees/bushes. I have a peach tree (2yrs), a fig tree (2 yrs), 10 blueberry bushes (half 1 yr, half 2 yrs), 5 kiwi vines (if the dogs didn’t kill them this winter), 2 blackberry bushes (I hope to get more this year), and now the 2 pomegranates. So far the blackberries are the only things to produce (well and the peach tree had 2 peaches but we had to pick them off because it wasn’t quite big enough to hold them). Because I don’t have a lot of money, I have to have patience and buy them small but I’m thinking this year will be the year I start to get real fruit on the blueberries and the fig tree.

I have one of those new pink blueberry bushes that I planted last fall. I already shave two apple and two pear trees and 8 blueberry bushes. I am excited to taste the pink blueberry. My granddaughter made me buy it last year at the Hardy Plant Society sale. Now I’m going outside to plant my peas and make some potting soil.

I just had another thought. You could plant fruit trees and blueberries in your front yard. I don’t think your neighbors could complain about that! I have a blueberry hedge in my front yard and it is beautiful especially in the fall when it turns red.

We probably passed in the store! I was looking for a female Kiwi tree but they did not have any 🙁 also picked up three buckets for a worm bin and used my 40% off coupon on chicken feed! Looked for a SunCalc but they do not carry them 🙁

My lemon, clementine and magic berry tree are supposed to be here Saturday! I would love to do raspberries or blueberries but I can’t think of where I have space to put them. I’m also super excited to eat my rhubarb this year (I heard that you weren’t supposed to eat the first two year’s harvests in order to get a super strong plant).

The Tigard Costco had fruit trees for less than $12. Another good place to look for plants is an FFA nursery at a local high school. The one near my home sells good quality plants for a fraction of the cost of stores. Last year they had blueberry bushes for $3, I went in to buy three tomato plants and came out with six blueberry bushes.